Blindy’s Thoughts at the Moment

Mark Blinderman, YWC!LI stalwart, for those of you who may not have met him

I don’t know why anyone would want to be President. To me, it’s like being in jail but being able to move around. No matter what you do, someone is going to hate you. When you think about all the compromises that are necessary, you begin to realize that nothing gets done if you stand 100% behind your convictions. Just looking at Congress makes me wonder how anything ever gets done.

About a month ago, I was ready to call it quits because I felt that President Obama might renege on the public option. However, I started thinking about what it must be like to walk in his shoes. There are megalomaniacs who run for office, but I don’t see Barack Obama as one of them. In fact, my gut tells me he is much more focused on doing the right thing than pushing for personal gain.

Maybe the problem today is that everyone is so black and white about the issues that there is no willingness to compromise. The political environment today is right out of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts’ “Off with their heads” mentality!

I’ve made peace with the fact that Barack Obama isn’t a god but I believe he is a good man and means to improve our lots. In that process, he has to deal with the vipers and crooks. There is no free lunch. I could never run for office because I’m an idealist and could never tone down my rhetoric when people like Palin or Limbaugh are concerned. If everyone were like me, it would be the Hatfields and the McCoys. Fortunately, I’ve learned to despise these people without
wasting my time with tirades (other than here) and know that there are people who are more compassionate than me; people like Barack who deal with all the slings and arrows and always keep his game plan in mind. I would have lost
it long ago.

Fortunately, there are those like Barack who are able to deal with the scum of the earth and not go down to their level. So I cut him the slack he needs. He must have the patience of a saint and no matter how vile his detractors are, he maintains his balance. I respect that. It’s hard to do. Maybe that’s the point. Look what’s happening to this country. Teabaggers are becoming lynch mobs. Lies are now standard fare. All these irate people run around looking to exorcise demons that are piling up on their path. NO ONE TAKES PERSONAL REPSPONSIBILITY. Everyone blames the other guy and our national scene has become a political Tower of Babel.

Amidst all this, Obama is a voice of reason and balance. So if he veers a little on this issue or makes compromises, I believe he does so because he feels that some progress is better than no progress. We were heading into the greatest depression in our nation’s history. This country was pointed to collapse thanks to the political void of the past 8 years. If there were no Barack Obama, I don’t even want to think about the devastation and ruin we would be in now. Yes, bailing out the banks sucked. Yes, the stimulus package was a ransom note, but if we didn’t do these unpopular things, we’d be in default right now and those obnoxious no-nothings who rant at Obama now would have been wiped out

It’s easy to put it on him, but let’s face it, Bush and his cronies failed on everything other than AIDS research. History will most likely paint George W. Bush as our worst president. If we had the luxury of parallel universes: our present one and one in which McCain/Palin got elected, I’m sure the latter one could have been best written by Stephen King.

Life is too short to demand perfection. I am speaking from experience: I am significantly imperfect. Every time I play golf, this becomes more and more clear. But I can live with that, so I can be charitable with Barack Obama and accept the fact that whatever his failings, he is the best I’ve seen from the ranks of the fallible beings that inhabit this ball of chaos as it hurls through space on its journey to nowhere.

Blindy

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